Who'd have though that Black Eyed Peas would have gone into number 1
this week with "Where Is The Love?", a low key collaboration with Justin
Timberlake. It seems so far away from when Designer Magazine interviewed
the band a couple of years ago around the release of "Request Line" with
Macy Gray. In fact it's been far from an overnight success story for the
bands main man Will-I-Am who started rapping 15 years ago back in the hood
when he was just 13 years ago and it wasn't no Lil Bow Wow wack shit, the
rhymes were all strictly Will-I-Am's own.

"Elephunk" sees the band moving on from the sound of the first two albums
which at times brought in accusations of BEP's simply being A Tribe Called
Quest tribute act. Funk of Phunk is the order of the day and being Elephunk
it's clearly huge phat slabs of phunk designed to shake you booty like
Beyonce in an epileptic fit. The question of whether anything matches up
to "Where Is The Love?" in truth is a little unfair, were talking about
a classic single and one that 10 years from now will be looked on in the
same way that people look at Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin as soul
demigods. The guitar riff, lush strings and simple yet effective beats
combine while 3 unique rappers throw socially conscious poetry over the
top before the beauty vocal melody from Fergie and Timberlake floats across
the chorus. Apart from "The Apl Song", which follows roughly the same structure
and production techniques, BEP's don't even try to write "Where Is The
Love?" Part 2 and why should they. "Let's Get Retarded" is the perfect
option for the next single flipping the track over with a club banger which
should see the nation simultaneous shouting lets get stupid, lets get retarded
while the ghost of George Clinton provides the soundtrack. "Hey Mama" comes
across as the perfect successor to the ragga tones of Sean Paul mixed with
"The Thong Song" hooking onto the asian influence creeping across the R&B
scene at the moment. "Shut Up", four to the floor beats, spy movie guitar
riffs and Fergie coming to the fore with a vocal which sounds like X-Tina
covering Michael Jackson and Will-I-Am's sounding ever like his dopelganga
Wyclef Jean.

Black Eyed Peas have produced an album which consciously destroys their
history and reinvents them as a force to be reckoned with. A collaboration
with Papa Roach, "Anxiety", seems somewhat out of place but rather
than head for the straight up hip-hop rock crossover formula they actually
attempt to instil it with the funk that the rest of the album revels in.
Funk with the flavour of...seems to be the ideology behind the album and
on "Sexy" we get jazzy vibes, "Latin Girls" is obvious and "Smells Like
Funk" with it's laid back shuffling beat. "Elephunk" may not be the album
of the year, although it comes close, but it's certainly an album which
has taken Black Eyed Peas to the next level.